Flourish and Flourish Excel
- Thread starter OhNo123
- Start date
mellowvision
Seafood Lover
lol...as long as it's educational! Yeah, that high light tank needs some nutrient absorbing stem or floating plants in there. Not enough plants to out-compete the algae. Float some water sprite in there and remove it a little at a time as the algae starts to disappear. Maybe this will give the grass some time to develop without getting choked by algae.
Cool tanks, btw.
Cool tanks, btw.
mellowvision
Seafood Lover
yeah, try the excel. it should help with carbon and algae...
the light hood is a current usa 20" 40w fixture with a daylight bulb. the fixture is awesome. I love it. it's well made and looks great. it was about 60 bucks online. I think it's too much light though, and may put some screen or stripes of tape over the lense to dim it... I don't think I can throw a lower wattage bulb in without changing the ballast.
there's actually a ton of duckweed floating... and 2 8" strands of pennywort(Ithink) that I keep over the co2 ladder to trap bubbles. I recently removed about a 4" circle of duckweed from the water to throw in the tank to the left. I started the 10g with 1 (one) piece of duckweed. it's amazing stuff. watersprite would be good. I haven't seen it locally... at least by that name. saw some stuff today that looked like it, but I forget what they were calling it.
the cabomba was supposed to be my fast grower... and it does grow fast, but I hate it. a little tid bit that I realized recently, that is reducing my hatred: it grows new plants under the gravel from the roots... everyone says chop and stick, remove the base... but I've been trying chop at the gravel and wait. lol. it also supposedly does well in brackish water! so we'll see how it fares in the 15 on the left... as it's going to start being brackish next week. UNFORTUNATELY, i've read that excel is hard on cabomba... only time will tell.
my advice to you Ohno: stick with the low light. your growth will be slower, but your plants will be lush and your tank will have much less chance of algae.
the light hood is a current usa 20" 40w fixture with a daylight bulb. the fixture is awesome. I love it. it's well made and looks great. it was about 60 bucks online. I think it's too much light though, and may put some screen or stripes of tape over the lense to dim it... I don't think I can throw a lower wattage bulb in without changing the ballast.
there's actually a ton of duckweed floating... and 2 8" strands of pennywort(Ithink) that I keep over the co2 ladder to trap bubbles. I recently removed about a 4" circle of duckweed from the water to throw in the tank to the left. I started the 10g with 1 (one) piece of duckweed. it's amazing stuff. watersprite would be good. I haven't seen it locally... at least by that name. saw some stuff today that looked like it, but I forget what they were calling it.
the cabomba was supposed to be my fast grower... and it does grow fast, but I hate it. a little tid bit that I realized recently, that is reducing my hatred: it grows new plants under the gravel from the roots... everyone says chop and stick, remove the base... but I've been trying chop at the gravel and wait. lol. it also supposedly does well in brackish water! so we'll see how it fares in the 15 on the left... as it's going to start being brackish next week. UNFORTUNATELY, i've read that excel is hard on cabomba... only time will tell.
my advice to you Ohno: stick with the low light. your growth will be slower, but your plants will be lush and your tank will have much less chance of algae.
mellowvision
Seafood Lover
currently, the co2 on that tank is a hagen bubble ladder with a european soda bottle, larger than 1l, smaller than 2l... as the generator and a 16oz seltaer bottle as gas seperator. the gas seperator is KEY. helps counting bubbles and keeps yeast out of the tank. the yeast was a major problem when I started.
I also have 2 hagen co2 cannisters that are on other tanks. I like them a lot. honestly, I think the hagen system is perfect to start with. it's cheap, works well, and is easy to set up.
yeah, the hood was expensive. somehow I let myself be convinced that I needed 40 watts. I was so wrong. there was a cool coralife fixture I liked too, but it was 30w... but way cheaper. should have done that... or done what I did on the tank on the right... 2 $10 clip lamps, and a 3 pack of GE daylight 15watt pcs... total: $27 dollars.... and plenty of light for what I want. eventually, I plan to hang a shelf over the tanks, and let the lights hang from the shelf. this will clean things up a lot.
as for duckweed... shipping it would hardly be worth it! almost every plant I've had shipped over the last 3 weeks has come in fully cooked... except the lemon bacopa... which is AWESOME. but yeah, almost every fish store will have duckweed somewhere in some tank. ask them for 1 piece. it'll be worth the laugh. I'd never pay for it.... and come to think of it, haven't yet. the one piece I used in the 10 gallon was from my 20g. the 20 gallon generates probably 6-8" of duckweed a month. I got duckweed in that tank mixed in with some other plants... as did my java moss. free.
I also have 2 hagen co2 cannisters that are on other tanks. I like them a lot. honestly, I think the hagen system is perfect to start with. it's cheap, works well, and is easy to set up.
yeah, the hood was expensive. somehow I let myself be convinced that I needed 40 watts. I was so wrong. there was a cool coralife fixture I liked too, but it was 30w... but way cheaper. should have done that... or done what I did on the tank on the right... 2 $10 clip lamps, and a 3 pack of GE daylight 15watt pcs... total: $27 dollars.... and plenty of light for what I want. eventually, I plan to hang a shelf over the tanks, and let the lights hang from the shelf. this will clean things up a lot.
as for duckweed... shipping it would hardly be worth it! almost every plant I've had shipped over the last 3 weeks has come in fully cooked... except the lemon bacopa... which is AWESOME. but yeah, almost every fish store will have duckweed somewhere in some tank. ask them for 1 piece. it'll be worth the laugh. I'd never pay for it.... and come to think of it, haven't yet. the one piece I used in the 10 gallon was from my 20g. the 20 gallon generates probably 6-8" of duckweed a month. I got duckweed in that tank mixed in with some other plants... as did my java moss. free.
